Pilot

October 1989 — In space, a small ship hurtles straight for Earth, surrounded by a cluster of meteors. On Earth, meanwhile, billionaire Lionel Luthor descends upon Smallville, Kansas in a private helicopter with his young, redheaded son Lex, who, as it turns out, has a fear of flying. Lionel notices the boy's eyes shut tight, and demands that he stop that nonsense at once and open his eyes. Elsewhere in Smallville, childless couple Jonathan and Martha Kent patronize the local flower shop, where they spot a three-year-old girl, Lana Lang, dressed in a fairy princess costume. The shop's proprietor, Nell Potter, is "being the good aunt" while Lana's parents attend the high school homecoming game. Fairy Princess Lana asks Martha to make a wish, then waves her plastic wand around. Later, outside the shop, Jonathan and Martha discuss the wish she made, and she admits that all she's ever wanted is a child. Meanwhile, as Lionel finishes up a business deal at a creamed corn factory, Lex wanders into a cornfield, finding a teenager, Jeremy Creek, stripped down to his boxers and strung up like a scarecrow. Jeremy pleads for Lex's help, just as a meteor strikes nearby, engulfing the field in a cloud of dirt. The rest of Smallville is similarly bombarded, including Main Street, where Lana and her aunt watch in horror as Lana's parents are struck down by a meteor. Jonathan and Martha, meanwhile, are driving home, when a meteor crashes in front of them, causing them to swerve into the dirt and overturn their pickup truck. Once the meteor shower is all over, Lionel is shocked to find his son in the middle of a field, missing all his hair but still alive. The Kents, on the other hand, are approached by a toddler without a stitch of clothing on him. Wrapping the toddler in a blanket, Jonathan and Martha try to figure out where the child came from, when they come across the child's spacecraft. Jonathan tells Martha that they can't just keep him, pointing out that it's not like they can just tell people that they found him in a field. Martha, however, counters that the boy found them.

October 2001 — The boy, now a teenager named Clark Kent, shows Jonathan his permission slip for football tryouts, assuring his father that he can be careful. Jonathan, however, is skeptical and refuses to sign it. Dejected, Clark starts to leave for school, only to find he's missed the bus. Instead, he utilizes superspeed, as well as a shortcut through a cornfield, to meet up with his friends Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan at school. Pete asks about Clark's permission slip, and Chloe mocks the two for wanting to join the football team. That's when Pete reveals to Chloe that every year before the homecoming game, the jocks of Smallville High pick a freshman, strip him down to his underwear, and string him up in a field like a scarecrow (which explains Jeremy Creek). Chloe calls the ritual "years of therapy waiting to happen," to which Pete agrees, pointing out that he and Clark are hoping to avoid that fate by joining the football team, reasoning that the jocks won't pick one of their own. Just then, Clark spots his crush, Lana Lang, across the school courtyard, and walks over to talk to her. Unfortunately, he trips along the way, dropping his books. Lana helps him pick up his things, and noticing one of his books, starts a conversation about Nietzsche and the concept of the super-man. They're interrupted, though, by Lana's jock boyfriend, Whitney Fordman, who asks Lana for help with one of his school assignments. Meanwhile, Jeremy Creek, locked in time since the meteor shower, breaks into the school's trophy case and steals a picture of some football players. Elsewhere, Lex Luthor, now an adult, arrives at the LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant in Smallville, looking around dismally before heading inside. Back at Smallville High, Clark watches Lana during cheerleading practice, and daydreams that he's a star football player with Lana as his girlfriend, cheering him on from the sidelines. Later, while walking home, he stops on Loeb Bridge to daydream some more, just as Lex speeds towards the bridge in his Porsche. Lex gets distracted by his cell phone, looking up just in time to avoid something in the road, in the process swerving right into Clark and sending the two of them careening into the river below. Clark, unharmed, pulls Lex out of the car, drags him toward the shore, and performs CPR. Lex wakes up in a daze, swearing that he'd hit Clark.

Later, Jonathan arrives on the scene and angrily berates Lex, telling him to drive slower next time, before taking Clark home. That night, in a barn loft on the Kent Farm, Clark gazes through a telescope at the stars, before positioning the telescope to spy on Lana as she hangs out on her own front porch. She's soon joined by Whitney, and as the two are talking, she lends him her necklace to wear in the homecoming game. She explains that it was made from a piece of the meteor that killed her parents, reasoning that so much bad came out of it that there has to be only good luck left. Meanwhile, at Frank's Auto Repair in town, Jeremy approaches Frank as he's working late by himself. Frank, as it turns out, used to be a football player at Smallville High, and one of the jocks that had strung up Jeremy in 1989. Recognizing Jeremy, Frank says it was "just a game," but Jeremy doesn't see it that way and electrocutes him. The next day, Clark returns home from school to find a new truck in the driveway, learning that it's a gift from Lex as thanks for saving his life. Jonathan, however, refuses to let him keep it, even after Clark offers up the compromise of driving the old truck while his dad drives the new one. Understanding Clark's frustration, Jonathan says that it's "normal" for Clark to be upset. At that, Clark responds that he's not normal, proving it by sticking his hand in a woodchipper, before pulling it out and showing Jonathan his hand, completely unscathed. Clark says he'd give anything to actually be normal. That night, Jonathan reveals to Clark his origins, showing him the spaceship he'd arrived in, kept in the storm cellar. Angry that his parents didn't tell him sooner, Clark superspeeds off into the night.

Later, Clark winds up at the local cemetery, where he runs into Lana as she's visiting her parents' graves. She 'introduces' Clark to them, then she and Clark get to talking for a bit. Afterwards, Clark walks Lana home, and aks her about the upcoming homecoming dance. She says she's going with Whitney, but offers to save Clark a dance. She gives him a kiss on the cheek good night, then Clark walks home alone. Unbeknownst to either of them, Whitney spies on them from Lana's porch, seething with jealousy. The next day, Clark pays a visit to Lex's mansion, interrupting a fencing session to return Lex's gift. Lex points out that he got a second chance at life when Clark saved him, and understands that Jonathan doesn't trust him because of his father Lionel. However, Lex declares his intentions for the two of them to be friends, not wanting anything to stand in the way of that. Meanwhile, in town, Chloe and Pete are gathered with a small crowd of onlookers as a former jock, the third that week, is wheeled out on a stretcher. Noticing Jeremy Creek among the onlookers, Chloe and Pete take his picture. Later, the two head to the office of the Torch, Smallville High's newspaper, and identify Jeremy through a yearbook from 1989. Showing Clark, they explain that Jeremy was in a coma for twelve years, and that he hasn't appeared to age in all that time is due to a "massive electrolyte imbalance". They add that there was an electrical storm a few days ago that somehow awakened Jeremy, and now he's getting revenge on the jocks that made him the Smallville High scarecrow in 1989. Chloe then shows off her Wall of Weird, a wall of the Torch office dedicated to "every strange, bizarre, and unexplained event that's happened in Smallville since the meteor shower." Clark scans the wall, spotting a picture of Lana that was taken shortly after the meteor shower. Clark instantly blames himself for the death of her parents, and quickly leaves, horrified. Outside the school, Whitney and some jocks ambush Clark, declaring Clark that year's scarecrow. Clark tries to fight back, but he's weakened by Lana's necklace. Whitney places the necklace around Clark's neck, saying it's the closest Clark will ever get to Lana, weakening Clark further. Then, Whitney and the others load Clark into the back of Whitney's truck and drive off, while Jeremy watches nearby.

That night, Jeremy finds Clark strung up in a field much as he was in 1989, and comes to the realization that despite getting his revenge, the tradition will never stop. So, leaving Clark where he is, Jeremy heads to the homecoming dance. As Lex is driving by, he notices Jeremy leaving, and recognizes him from years before. Upon investigation, he finds Clark in the field, and immediately gets him down. In the process, Lana's necklace falls off, and Clark instantly feels better. He assures Lex that he's fine, then grabs his clothes and takes off after Jeremy. At the homecoming dance, Jeremy prepares to set off the sprinkler system with the intent of electrocuting everyone in attendance, when Clark shows up to stop him. Jeremy tries to electrocute Clark instead, but when that doesn't work, tries to run him over with a truck, only to end up crashing through a water main. Upon coming into contact with the water, Jeremy himself gets electrocuted, aging twelve years and finding that he's unable to remember who Clark is. Clark then checks in on the dance attendees, and catches Lana and Whitney sharing a kiss. He starts to leave, but then notices Whitney's truck outside and gets an idea. Whitney comes out to find his truck stacked on top of two others. Later, in the barn loft, Clark tells Jonathan that he's glad the Kents were the ones that found him. Jonathan, however, replies that Clark found them. Jonathan then heads back inside the house, leaving Clark to his thoughts. Clark fantasizes that Lana comes by to dance with him, only to be interrupted from his reverie by the real Lana coming home from the dance. As she starts to head inside her aunt's house, Clark watches, quietly thanking Lana for the dance. She then stops and looks around, almost as if she's heard him.